Pennsylvania best served by keeping Penn State fines home

There is good news and bad news for fans of Penn State — both the school and its legendary football program.

The good news is that Bill O’Brien is not going anywhere. The bad news is that neither is the Jerry Sandusky saga.

O’Brien has been heralded as something of a miracle man after he righted the Nittany Lion football program as it foundered in the rubble of the Sandusky scandal, the toppling and subsequent death of the iconic Joe Paterno, and the harsh sanctions imposed on the school by the NCAA.

O’Brien guided the blue and white to an 8-4 mark and, as expected, NFL teams came calling. O’Brien flirted with the idea of leaving. He interviewed with the Eagles, before announcing he would not leave the school in a lurch after just one season.

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He deserves almost as much credit for that as he does that won-loss record.

Unfortunately, all the ugliness, political and criminal intrigue that continues to swirl around the Sandusky case isn’t going away any time soon either.

Gov. Tom Corbett ensured that last week when he filed a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA, claiming it had overstepped its boundaries in imposing those harsh sanctions against Penn State. Corbett went so far as to intimate the NCAA willfully violated its own procedures to boost its own image as overseer of collegiate athletics.

A day later, the governor found himself defending the lawsuit, explaining his change of heart on the matter. When the NCAA first dropped the hammer on Penn State, Corbett, who happens to sit on the school’s board of trustees, urged the panel to accept the penalty and move on.

Penn State no doubt would like to do just that. But Corbett’s switcheroo last week, harpooned by his critics as little more than political grandstanding by a governor facing a re-election battle and possible challenge from inside his own party in the primary, makes that unlikely to happen anytime soon. Corbett’s sagging poll numbers make the lawsuit look that much more suspect.

But there is one aspect of the draconian sanctions that rocked Happy Valley to its core that does need to be addressed.

Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, is doing just that.

In taking down Penn State, among the penalties imposed by the NCAA were $60 million in fines. Much of that money is being targeted for programs to help victims of sexual abuse. But only a quarter of that money is earmarked to stay in Pennsylvania. That struck Corman as piling on, a little more substantial than the political piling on accusation Corbett is lobbing at the NCAA.

Earlier Corman urged lawmakers to pass legislation mandating that most of the $60 million be spent here in Pennsylvania, saying it’s money that in reality belongs to Pennsylvania taxpayers.

Last Friday he went one step further, joining the parade taking the NCAA to court to be sure the money stays here.

It’s hard to quibble with the fines put in place by the NCAA, regardless of what the governor claims, but it is easy to see the merit of keeping the money here in Pennsylvania.

Otherwise, it veers dangerously close to Corbett’s claim that the NCAA is in fact punishing innocent state residents who support Penn State through tuition, football tickets, or Nittany Lion paraphernalia.

Corman, a Republican who represents the area where Penn State’s campus is located, chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. He’s arming himself for something of a turf war with the NCAA, accusing it of an illegal violation of his oversight role for state government spending.

“Even though the NCAA intends to wrest such a large sum of Pennsylvania public funds, it has refused to submit to any control by Pennsylvania elected officials and refused to commit more than 25 percent of those public funds to Pennsylvania causes,” Corman’s lawsuit said.

Budget figures show the state contributed $214 million this year to Penn State’s $4.3 billion budget.

The money should stay here in Pennsylvania.

And Penn State should be able to move on from the mire of the sleaze Sandusky oozed all over the pristine campus.

Keeping its football coach likely will prove a lot easier than wiping that stain away.